Why Open PvP with full Loot worked in UO.

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This is exactly why full loot pvp worked in UO

Weapons and armour had very little to do with the outcome of a fight and it was so cheap it was disposable anyway.
I think most players are scared of games like pre-trammel UO because they are so used to their overpowered legendary and epic items which took months to get, they simply can't grasp the fact that it was their own skills and abilities as a player and not their fully geared character which would determine winning or losing a fight.

I remember when weapons of Vanquishing were the best of the best weapons, yet an unskilled player wielding them could be easily taken down by someone using only GM crafted items.

 

Absolutely.

I am convinced Ultima Online had the best crafting system to date. A huge contributing factor to this is open PvP. Players relied less upon a silver/vanq/supremely accurate katana because of the fear of losing it. This, in turn, increased the dependance on GM crafted items at a cost of only 150-200 gold. I know many crafters in Ultima Online who were successful, despite the constant threat that a PK was lurking around the corner.

 

I liked living in a dangerous environment from the very begining. When I created my first character on UO for the first time, I was already open to being "tricked" by a more experienced player and getting pk'd and looted. For me it is grief yea, but this made the game more immersive. When I started my first character on UO, I was looking for a world where I had to watch my back. I never imagined that I was creating a character in a virtual world where all players in the game were all just there and all they could do was heal me, give me items, chat with me, and help me train, or help me slaughter monsters. If I knew that right off the bat back then, I would have said "Where is all the evil in this game which advertises itself as a world where you can choose to be good or evil? Looks like im pretty much stuck with being good.". What is the point of a virtue or karma system when you could only collect good karma or do good deeds?
UO, nor any MMO really has had a decent good/evil system. In UO you could lose karma, but for what? Snooping backpacks? Killing wandering healers? Putting on orc masks? Yea you could go to felucca and try to duke it out with all the other gladiators that have their skills macroed up to GM and their bods stripped naked with only either 30 each reg in their pack or just a spear and some bandages. Just make sure you attack a blue one though because thats the only way to lose karma and get the evil title you want. Then after a few blues, VIOLA! your red! Your the dread lord, and the guards whack you whenever you step into town and when you die you lose your stats and skills when you get rezzed. Then you just go back and turn the macro on to get the skills back.
Lets forget about stuff involving players... There wasnt even anything evil to do PvM. Couldnt steal from NPC's, couldnt get anything valuable killing NPC blues. There werent big NPC castles full of do-gooder citizens you could raid and raze to the ground for treasure and evil title points. You basically were forced into fighting ettins, zombies, skeletons, dragons, lich lords. If you had a bad karma title you should have avoiding double clicking on that pack mule.
Why did open PvP with full Loot work in UO? Because it was a world where a true good/evil system existed. Sure it was full of griefing, PK's at unwanted times, new players getting slayed. But at least you could say there was good.... AND evil. I dont care if people try to say, "but sales will plummet!" Sure they will! But thats because just like not many people buy fruitcake, or spinach and like it, not many people are into the sort of game that has a TRUE good/evil system.

 

If the game isn't dependent on items, I don't see why open PvP would be the total failure that people see it as.. Losing your items is not that big of a deal when getting new ones is a cake-walk.

I ventured out into the harsh wilderness wearing the best possible, extremely expensive gear once.

ONCE.

After that god-awful occurence, the game becomes much more economical.

"I intend to make 5,000 gold on this trip. That means, I'm only going to wear 500 gold of gear. No big loss, should I get murdered."

"I have to protect 25,000 gold of goods. I'm going to wear defensive gear, take friends, and take potions... and trap all my bags, so that if I'm looted or if I'm pickpocketed, the grief is mutual."

If a player is being griefed, why not allow said ghost a teleport to a church/healer? A random church in a random town, mind you -- to prevent quick travel exploits.

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To be honest, in the old school UO shard, ive never really experienced anything that I consider "grief" other than players PKing me and grabbing my items. Which is merely just part of the game. I was mining, the PK wanted my ore, so he butchered me. I was fresh meat for the day. Twas terrible i'd say. Never want it to happen again. But... so long as I play the game, it will happen again. And.. well... I keep playing it! And no, I dont want the rules of the game to change. No more so than I would want the pits, goombas, koopa troopas, and lakuhita taken out of the first super mario bros game. Might be mildly amusing to use the old rectangular game pad to direct mario from left to right, grab all the coins, 1-ups, and mushrooms I desired. But I think after walking mario through three levels im going to start wanting some goombas to stomp on, and some koopa troopas to shove inside their shells and kick at everything else walking toward me from right to left in a single file line.